New Harry Potter TV Series in Production
Well said @salvyus, and welcome back! 💚
I'm actually kind of glad they cast Paapa Essiedu as Snape...
Just want to reiterate that nothing's official yet. I know the internet is treating it like a foregone conclusion, and it probably is, but we won't know for sure until HBO confirms.
Quote from Heatherlly on March 16, 2025, 4:41 pmJust want to reiterate that nothing's official yet. I know the internet is treating it like a foregone conclusion, and it probably is, but we won't know for sure until HBO confirms.
Is that true? I thought it had been confirmed in the last week? If you're correct, that's great news.
Nope. Nothing is confirmed until you hear it from HBO.
Best article I've read to date on this issue:
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2534700/a-black-snape-is-a-bad-idea
Quote from Heatherlly on March 16, 2025, 4:41 pmWell said @salvyus, and welcome back!
I'm actually kind of glad they cast Paapa Essiedu as Snape...
Just want to reiterate that nothing's official yet. I know the internet is treating it like a foregone conclusion, and it probably is, but we won't know for sure until HBO confirms.
I am keeping my fingers crossed.🤞 Again, nothing against the actor, he just isn't the right fit for Snape and that's not on him, that's on HBO.
Also, like someone else already stated here earlier, because of this fiasco, my expectations for the HBO show have dwindled dramatically. When I first heard the news, I was really excited, as a good-written tv show would be able to do the entire HP story justice, unlike the films (for how good some of them may be), who had to sometimes cut out A LOT to fit it into an appropriate length for a film. And HBO seemed to be up for the job, knowing their track record (Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, etc.). Basically, HBO seemed like the best company (to me) to be the one to make a series on HP. However, this casting proves they care more about "diversity" and "modernising" the show than actually staying faithful to the source material, which was the last thing I expected from HBO...
Oh well, you can't have it all, can you?...*sigh*
Again, nothing against the actor, he just isn't the right fit for Snape and that's not on him, that's on HBO.
If it turns out to be true, I think it is on the actor as well. That will mean that he either chose to audition for the part or auditioned for a different part and was offered the role of Snape. In either case, it would have been him who chose to pursue the role. No one would've forced him to take it.
This would mean that a.) he's never read the books, or b.) he has read them, but decided that Snape's race, physical description, and background were unimportant. Either way, it would be clear that he doesn't understand the character. If he did, he wouldn't be pursuing the role.
I might have more sympathy if he was an unknown actor who was desperate for a job, but that isn't the case. He's well established and clearly has no shortage of opportunities.
Looking at Paapa's acting credentials, he played the brother of Anne Boleyn (who was played by Jodie Turner-Smith) in the show of the same name; my guess is that, whether or not he's ever read the books, he doesn't care about the physical appearance of the characters he portrays.
Yeah, which is fine with characters where it doesn't matter. In Snape's case though, it very much does and goes far deeper than what he looks like. I'm sorry, but if Essiedu doesn't understand that or care, that speaks volumes. It proves he's a self-serving actor who thinks shallow race swapping is okay, regardless of how much it distorts the source material.
Also, yeah, I knew about the George Boleyn thing, though I've chosen not to rant about it. I just don't understand why actors like him are so dead set on race swapping indisputably white characters and historical figures, when they have to know their race is going to be the primary focus. Why not new characters, or at least characters where physical attributes aren't so relevant and/or well defined? Wouldn't that be better, given that you'd have the chance to truly define a role and be recognized solely for your talents?
I find it odd that a lot of modern producers/directors seem to ignore a fundamental part of characterisation. Back when I studied media (a long time ago), the visual impact of a character was just as important as the words they spoke or their body movements. We had a whole section on how they should look, which included costume, casting, make up, hair, etc, and how outward appearance made a big difference to the character as a whole and how the viewer will interpret them. And yes, race will have an impact whether people like it or not. If character one is white and character two is black, and character one is mocking character two for their appearance, the audience will immediately interpret that as racism. It doesn't matter what the producer's/director's personal opinions are and whether they think race shouldn't matter. What matters is being aware of what the viewer thinks and then deliberately using words/mannerisms/appearance to craft the reaction you want from that viewer.
It's not just race, but other visual criteria. If character one is a man and character two is a woman and character one mocks character two for being weak, the viewer will likely interpret that to mean character one thinks character two is physically weak because she is a woman. That character might be highlighting moral weakness or lack of intellectual skill or something else, but the audience is likely to primarily focus on the fact that one is male and the other female and the more obvious physical discrepancy between the two and make that conclusion. You have to be aware of that as a producer/director.
I don't know if the above is just no longer taught in college/workshops or if it's just a case of very unskilled producers/directors having no awareness of viewer psychology (which I think is unlikely, given that I have autism and even I was able to learn these things). I could understand more if they were deliberately giving positive role model type characters to non-white actors. But in the case of Snape, you can't even use that argument. It just seems like incredibly bad casting.
